Live Where It's Cheap

More effective than giving up luxuries, using coupons, choosing store brands, or buying in bulk, the most powerful enabler of frugal living is to live where it's cheap. (See also: Voluntary Simplicity as Hedonism)

For basic stuff like rent and food, it can easily cost two or three times as much to live where it's expensive. For example, compared to where I live now (Champaign, Illinois), my rent in Manhattan would be 326% more while groceries would cost 57% more. (That according to this cost of living calculator at CNN Money.)

Of course, there are downsides to living where it's cheap. There's probably less to do and less to buy, although the internet eases those burdens immensely. (There's a lot less need to go to the big city to shop, and between on-line entertainment and DVDs, you don't miss out the way you would have just one or two decades ago.)

Many will argue that they have to live somewhere expensive. Maybe their family is there. Maybe their job is there. (If you're a ballet dancer, you have to live where there's a ballet company. If you're a TV scriptwriter, you have to live within commuting distance of Hollywood.) Maybe they just really, really want to live there.

That may be. I'm not here to second-guess the necessities of your life. Rather, I want to suggest that you think deeply about what you want and about the best way to achieve those wants.

Learn From My Experience

Even if you really want the amenities of an expensive location, think about whether living there is the best way to take advantage of them.

I lived in Los Angeles for a while, back in the mid-1980s. That gave me the opportunity to do all sorts of things that aren't possible anywhere else. (For example, I was able to shop at a store dedicated to selling survivalist supplies — they sold foods preserved for long-term storage, books on building and stocking your survival retreat, water purifying equipment, etc. There aren't many of those around.)

But living there was so expensive! Working at a regular job, I only had so much time to take advantage of the unique opportunities of my location.

For example, I only managed one visit to the La Brea tar pits and only went to one comedy club. (My life wasn't quite that boring, but my other adventures — such as camping at Joshua Tree and Sequoia National Forest — didn't depend on living in Los Angeles. In fact, they'd have been easier if I'd lived in some small town in Nevada — less traffic to fight through when heading out for some weekend camping.)

The money I saved the first year after I moved to Champaign just on rent would have covered the cost of flying to LA, staying in a hotel, hiring a limo, and admission to the La Brea tar pits, with enough left over for cover and drinks at the comedy club.

Throw in the savings from everything else being cheaper as well — food, gasoline, electricity, clothing — and it probably would have paid for two such trips.

What you're actually going to do (as opposed to what you'd theoretically be able to do) makes a big difference. If you're not going to buy something, it doesn't much matter how easy it is to buy.

If you're a serious skier, living close enough to the slopes that you can ski any time you get a couple of hours off is a huge boost to your standard of living. If, like me with the comedy club, you only get on the mountain once or twice a year anyway, you might just as well live somewhere cheaper and then take a ski holiday.

Income Also Varies

For some work, the amount of money you can earn may vary depending on where you live. For other work, it doesn't.

The amount that writers, artists, or web designers can charge has little to do with where they live. For other jobs, especially for jobs providing personal services to locals (hairdresser, receptionist, clerk, massage therapist), it's possible to earn a lot more per hour if you live somewhere expensive than it is if you live somewhere cheap. That's partly because the people who are hiring you have more money, and partly because your competition can't afford to undercut your price (because they need more money to live there just like you do).

On the other hand, where you live will usually have no influence on non-work sources of income — your stocks and bonds will pay the same dividends and interest no matter where you live.

This insight sometimes leads people to figure that they should live where they can earn the maximum amount during their working years, planning to save up money (investing in those stocks and bonds), and then move somewhere cheap where their dividends and interest will go further. That can work, but it often doesn't. The high costs of living somewhere expensive — especially when you figure in the higher taxes on that higher income — often leave you with little in the way of actual surplus savings.

The details matter. There's no alternative to actually doing the calculations yourself if you want to get the right answer.

Live Where It's Really, Really Cheap

One option worth considering is living where it's really, really cheap. Especially in rural areas, it's often possible to find housing that's virtually free (or even actually free, such as in exchange for a few hours of work as a caretaker).

My Strategy

To my mind, the winning strategy in this, as it is in most financial decisions, is to think carefully about what you really want, check prices, and make a budget that lets you afford the things that are most important to you.

My own calculations have led me to live someplace fairly cheap, yet fairly close to some big cities. (St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Chicago are all close enough to make day trips; Chicago by train.)

The decision was pretty easy for me. I want to be a writer. What I get paid is the same no matter where I live. By living somewhere cheap, I'm able to be a full-time writer. If I lived somewhere expensive, I'd have to get a day job. And then I wouldn't have as much time for writing. I'd be less productive and less happy. I'd also make less money from my writing, putting me even further behind.

Many people choose to live where it's expensive, but to do so on the cheap — a house in the far-out exurbs and a fuel-efficient car for commuting. That may be the best choice for them — as I say, I don't want to be second-guessing somebody else's life — but a lot of people make that choice by default, rather than because they ran the numbers and figured out that it put them ahead of where they'd be if they lived someplace cheap.

If you've been living in a big city, you'll probably be pretty surprised how much cheaper you can live in a small town or a rural area — and even more surprised how accessible the big-city amenities turn out to be for someone who's not spending every waking hour earning enough money to pay their big-city rent.

Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.

Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

I agree with the premise of this article. But it's also important to remember that "living where it's cheap" doesn't necessarily mean that one has to avoid whole sections of this nation. (Okay, maybe it does mean that you have to avoid Manhatten.) It's also possible to live comfortably and frugally in a cheaper part of the location where one needs to live because of a job or whatever.
When we moved to the city in which we currently reside, we could have chosen a house with a mountain view. We could have chosen an expensive, newly constructed home in an ideal subdivision.
Instead, we chose to live in a cheaper part of town, closer to downtown. In return, we found an older, well-constructed small house with a large lot suitable for a big garden. We are within walking distance of a major grocery store, close to 2 bus routes, within biking distance of our jobs, our doctors, our chuch, the post office, etc. Unfortunately, it also put us in a less desirable school district, but since we homeschooled, that wasn't a problem.
As the article says, everyone's situation is going to be different. But it's vitally important to consider all the ramifications of a decision.

It's certainly true that the little things—like living within walking or biking distance of work or shopping—do add up.

So many people just look at the top two or three items on their budget (which is not completely unreasonable—that's where the money is) and then "solve" their budget problems by optimizing those items for cost. They never think that there are a lot more variables to consider, including the whole array of budget items further down, but also things like what city they live in.

This is exactly why we left Toronto for practically the middle of nowhere, and what enabled us to subsequently "retire" at age 34.

Free Money Finance posted the 10 most hated money-saving tips according to the comments he’s received over the years while writing over 700 tips. These are the tips that generate the most negative comments like, “That’s impractical,” or “No one would ever do that,” or “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Sitting in the number one position of these hated money-saving tips:

We found that people usually asked about being away from family. But, now that we have no mortgage and have investments working for us, we actually see our family more often now that we live a 3 hr flight away than we did when we were overworked in Toronto, less than an hour's drive from family. And when we do see them, we stay for a week or two at a time allowing us to really feel like a part of the family while we're there... not spending a couple of hours on the train to make it in time for dinner, then have to head out again so that we get home at a reasonable time to work the next morning.

Of course, this lifestyle choice isn't for everyone. But too many people write this idea off too quickly (especially if Free Money Finance is to be believed!) when it's the best decision we ever made for not only our finances, but also our health and probably relationships, too.

I have found that a lot of times people choose to live in a certain area, or a certain area within a town that is more expensive than somewhere else, b/c of the whole "better" schools thing. It is sad that a lot of cheaper places to live, don't have good school systems.

I think this article is a bit... wrong. There is no need to abandon urban living for the rural life style. Oftentimes, many things in the rural areas become way more expensive.

I lived in Casper, WY for 5 years... and I just moved to Phoenix. My monthly expenses will go down from what they were in Casper... at least once my house up in Casper sells and I buy my next one here in Phoenix (debt free I might add).

I see that rentals here are VERY reasonable, phoenix has lots of modern ammenities and things to do, and because of it being a big city, there is a larger market for second hand goods on craigslist. There is also way more to choose from in terms of "free stuff" on craigslist and freecycle.

In summary... just move from your expensive city to a less expensive city.